GEOLOGY. 311 



world. The communication by Capt. Brickcndon, with descriptions 

 of the fossils by Dr. Mantell, read before the Geological Society of 

 London, gives the following particulars respecting a discovery of the 

 highest interest in a pala?ontological point of view. The old red 

 sandstone strata are largely developed along the coast of Moray shire, 

 and the yellowish crystalline sandstone is extensively quarried in 

 several localities near Elgin Spynie, &c. These strata, although for 

 years dilligently explored by several competent local observers, had 

 yielded but a solitary specimen of organic remains, viz., the impres- 

 sions of a series of large scales of a new genus of ganoid fishes. In 

 the summer of 1850, Capt. Brickendon, obtained from the yellow 

 sandstone near Elgin, a slab bearing the distinct impressions of Che- 

 Ionian footsteps. These are thirty-four in number, and extend several 

 feet across the stone. The impressions of the right feet alternate 

 with those of the left, from which they are separated laterally by an 

 interval of three inches, the length of each space or stride being 

 about four inches. The imprints of the fore and hind feet are nearly 

 in contact ; the size of the former in relation to the latter, is as three 

 to four. The hinder prints are an inch in diameter. The foot-prints 

 are obtuse and rounded, and indicate a close connection of the articu- 

 lations, for no distinct markings of the joints are shown. The dis- 

 covery of these foot-prints, which in every respect resemble those 

 from the Triassic, and other rocks, that are ascribed by palaeontolo- 

 gists, to turtles or tortoises, is alone an important fact, since it demon- 

 strates the probability, if not certainty, that reptiles existed during 

 the Devonian epoch ; hence the attention of those collectors who 

 were aware of the discovery, was especially directed to the rocks of 

 Morayshire, in the hope of obtaining other vestiges of reptilians, but 

 without success, until in November, 1851, Mr. Duff, of Elgin, pro- 

 cured from the sandstone a most extraordinary fossil. This fossil con- 

 sists of the impression of a great part of the skeleton of a four-footed 

 reptile, about six inches long, in a block of crystalline sandstone 

 which is broken into three pieces. Fortunately the stone is split in a 

 direction parallel with the plane of the spinal column, so that one 

 piece exposes the imprints of the vertebras and ribs, and hinder 

 extremities, and the other, the corresponding mould of the upper 

 part. Dr. Mantell, by a careful investigation, has been enabled to 

 give restored figures of the vertebras, ribs, femora, &c. ; but the origi- 

 nal contains no remains of osseous substance, except of the cranium, 

 and that part of the skeleton is crushed, and in a great measure con- 

 cealed by the investing stone. The skull appears to have been of an 

 oval form, resembling that of a small lizard, or aquatic salamander ; 

 but the true outline cannot be determined. There are remains of 

 two or three very minute and smooth conical teeth, but their mode of 

 implantation in the jaw is not obvious. The spinal column from the 

 occiput to the pelvis, appears to have consisted of twenty-four ver- 

 tebras, each vertebra having a pair of very slender ribs ; there are no 

 remains of the scapular arch, but there are imprints of the. left 

 humerus, radius and ulna ; and of the right and left femur, tibia and 

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